ARTICLES ABOUT RADLER BY DATE - PAGE 4

An attorney for former Chicago Sun-Times Publisher David Radler said Wednesday in federal court that Radler plans to plead guilty in connection with a multimillion-dollar fraud from the newspaper's parent company. Radler's lawyer, Anton Valukas, confirmed what prosecutors had disclosed in announcing the charges last week: Radler expects to plead guilty. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve scheduled Radler's plea for Sept. 15. Co-defendant Mark Kipnis, 58, former head corporate lawyer for Hollinger International Inc., the media holding company that owns the Sun-Times, pleaded not guilty Wednesday at his arraignment.

Former Chicago Sun-Times Publisher F. David Radler is scheduled to plead guilty Sept. 15 to fraud charges stemming from a multimillion-dollar theft from the newspaper's parent company, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. A co-defendant, Mark Kipnis, former head corporate lawyer for Hollinger International Inc., the media holding company that owns the Sun-Times, is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in the case. While selling various newspaper publishing groups in the U.S., Radler funneled more than $32 million in payments disguised as "non-compete fees" to a company he controlled, federal prosecutors allege.

In Chicago on Thursday, federal prosecutors at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse were standing before financial charts, describing how former Chicago Sun-Times publisher F. David Radler and others allegedly stole $32 million from the paper's parent company. Radler, who is cooperating with prosecutors, had just been indicted. The speculation is that he's talking about former Hollinger International Chief Executive Conrad Black. Likely there are others too. "He's been cooperating for a while," U.S. Atty.

The U.S. attorney's office in Chicago confirmed that it is conducting a criminal investigation into the activities of ousted Hollinger International Inc. executives Conrad Black and F. David Radler. Ironically, it appears that Black, by asking for a mountain of documents in a civil case, may have forced the government to disclose the probe. In a court filing Monday, federal prosecutors said one of the documents Black's attorneys requested could compromise their investigation.

Former top executives of Chicago Sun-Times owner Hollinger International Inc. "cheated and defrauded" investors and filed misleading public documents, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged Monday in a federal lawsuit. The civil suit is the first federal action against Conrad Black, the company's former chief executive, and David Radler, his top lieutenant, since the two executives were ousted from the company a year ago in the wake of a payment scandal that engulfed the newspaper publisher.

Describing Hollinger International Inc. as a "corporate kleptocracy," independent investigators accused the company's top two former executives of looting the firm and lambasted its high-profile board of directors for allowing unparalleled business abuses. The investigators' 513-page report, filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, painted former Chief Executive Conrad Black and his top deputy, David Radler, as self-serving schemers constantly on the take during their reign at Hollinger, the company that owns the Chicago Sun-Times.

Hollinger International Inc. on Friday sought triple damages against its former chief executive, Conrad Black, and his top aide, David Radler, for allegedly selling newspapers to their own private companies for less than fair market value. Hollinger, which owns the Chicago Sun-Times, said it made the allegations in an amended lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The original suit, filed in January, accused the executives of taking millions of dollars in fees and payments that belonged to the company.

Federal prosecutors in Chicago have launched a criminal investigation into whether the top two former executives at the company that owns the Chicago Sun-Times illegally took tens of millions of dollars that should have gone to shareholders, a source close to the case said Thursday. The investigation by U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald's office and the FBI focuses on Conrad Black, the former chairman and chief executive of Chicago-based Hollinger International Inc., and former Sun-Times Publisher David Radler, according to the source.

In 1969, David Radler and two partners scooped up the nearly bankrupt Sherbrooke Record newspaper in Quebec for $18,000. Radler and his cohorts immediately cut the staff by 40 percent. And then they penny-pinched on everything from notebooks to toilet paper. This cost-slashing management style put the Record into the black in only a few months and would be used by Radler over and over again as dozens of papers were acquired. By 1980, Radler bragged at a Canadian government hearing on newspaper ownership that the greatest contribution he and his partners had given to journalism was "the three-man newsroom--and two of them sell ads."

A familiar face may be among those bidding for the Chicago Sun-Times and other local newspapers owned by Hollinger International Inc. As investment banking firm Lazard LLC prepares to talk to bidders in Chicago early next week, sources said that at least one former Hollinger executive has expressed interest. Todd Vogt, a former Hollinger executive vice president, is said to be part of a group preparing an offer for the company's Chicago Group, which includes the Sun-Times, seven local dailies and 117 community weeklies and semiweeklies in Illinois and Indiana.